Discover with us how it's made a karting livery with the famous designer and producer Kart David.
13/08/19 - Special
Author: Vroomkart International
The white / green Tony Kart, the black / orange CRG, the white / red Birel ART ... besides for their victories, the karts are also remembered for their colors; visuals are, of course, important.
We talked about the evolution of karting liveries with James McCabe, CEO of KartDavid, who explained how we get to what we could define today as true and proper works of art.
Karting graphics today need to stand out on the track whilst looking amazing in the paddock and on the grid.
A lot has changed since our two founders began with a small inkjet printer and desktop laminator in their parents' house. Today we have a bigger office with several printers, laminators and a large flat-bed cutter. There is also a designated design team that
solely focus on producing beautiful detailed designs for everyone and software that helps us turn around and ship kart graphics quicker than ever before (3 working days in most cases).
The major differences come from the print and material industries.
In the past 20 years digital printing (allowing small quantities of a single design) has become very affordable, clean and easy to use. Before this an old method of printing (screen printing) was used. It is still used today to produce the big kart chassis manufacturer’s graphics. This method is very expensive to set up new designs but cheap to run big quantities. Digital on the other hand is very cheap to set up with a new design, but the materials are more expensive.
As for materials, 13/14 years ago we were limited to only a single supplier. They were based in America, very expensive and difficult to keep a constant supply from. In the past 10 years a number of other suppliers have released materials that are now suitable for our industry.
Colour is incredibly important to everyone and when we started, chrome and fluorescent colours had to be cut out of rolls and added to the print by hand. This is very time consuming. Around 7 years ago we were the first graphics supplier to start printing chrome colours (a method that several others have followed). 2 years ago came a bigger breakthrough with fluorescent colours being printed by ourselves; to this day no one else can do this.
Looking forward we are aiming to print and finish everyone’s graphics much faster, increasing our turnaround times. We are currently fairly quick with most orders being shipped within 72 hours of design confirmation. The dream is a next day service. We are working on this!
Can you explain us the process to arrive at the final sticker kit?
«We are always working on making this process as quick as possible. It all starts with contacting us via phone, email or social media. To start your design, we need to understand what kart you have (so we can design onto the correct template), any extras such as tank stickers, rear bumpers you want designing and also be provided with the logos you want embedded in your design. This is sometimes the biggest stumbling block as we need to have your logos in vector format (this could be PDF, Ai or EPS). This is actually very important to us so we can manipulate your logos to fit into all areas of your design».
«Once we have that information, we will turn your design around within 48-72 hours and then wait for your alterations, if any. It’s as simple as that».
«We have an excellent in house design team that always aim to get your design perfect first time. Being realistic though we understand everyone has different tastes and thus always try to give options in order for you to choose your favourite or request alterations. This means the time to a final confirmed design is arbitrary and comes down to your specific design expectations».
About Kart David: click here. Stickerit
© photo: FM Images
We talked about the evolution of karting liveries with James McCabe, CEO of KartDavid, who explained how we get to what we could define today as true and proper works of art.
Karting graphics today need to stand out on the track whilst looking amazing in the paddock and on the grid.
A lot has changed since our two founders began with a small inkjet printer and desktop laminator in their parents' house. Today we have a bigger office with several printers, laminators and a large flat-bed cutter. There is also a designated design team that
solely focus on producing beautiful detailed designs for everyone and software that helps us turn around and ship kart graphics quicker than ever before (3 working days in most cases).
The major differences come from the print and material industries.
In the past 20 years digital printing (allowing small quantities of a single design) has become very affordable, clean and easy to use. Before this an old method of printing (screen printing) was used. It is still used today to produce the big kart chassis manufacturer’s graphics. This method is very expensive to set up new designs but cheap to run big quantities. Digital on the other hand is very cheap to set up with a new design, but the materials are more expensive.
As for materials, 13/14 years ago we were limited to only a single supplier. They were based in America, very expensive and difficult to keep a constant supply from. In the past 10 years a number of other suppliers have released materials that are now suitable for our industry.
Colour is incredibly important to everyone and when we started, chrome and fluorescent colours had to be cut out of rolls and added to the print by hand. This is very time consuming. Around 7 years ago we were the first graphics supplier to start printing chrome colours (a method that several others have followed). 2 years ago came a bigger breakthrough with fluorescent colours being printed by ourselves; to this day no one else can do this.
Looking forward we are aiming to print and finish everyone’s graphics much faster, increasing our turnaround times. We are currently fairly quick with most orders being shipped within 72 hours of design confirmation. The dream is a next day service. We are working on this!
Can you explain us the process to arrive at the final sticker kit?
«We are always working on making this process as quick as possible. It all starts with contacting us via phone, email or social media. To start your design, we need to understand what kart you have (so we can design onto the correct template), any extras such as tank stickers, rear bumpers you want designing and also be provided with the logos you want embedded in your design. This is sometimes the biggest stumbling block as we need to have your logos in vector format (this could be PDF, Ai or EPS). This is actually very important to us so we can manipulate your logos to fit into all areas of your design».
«Once we have that information, we will turn your design around within 48-72 hours and then wait for your alterations, if any. It’s as simple as that».
«We have an excellent in house design team that always aim to get your design perfect first time. Being realistic though we understand everyone has different tastes and thus always try to give options in order for you to choose your favourite or request alterations. This means the time to a final confirmed design is arbitrary and comes down to your specific design expectations».
About Kart David: click here. Stickerit
© photo: FM Images
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